Beets

My husband Jason has three favorite foods: fried calamari, wings and cheesesteaks. (Pizza is a close fourth.) There are two foods he won’t eat – beets and blue cheese – and one that he can’t crab (allergic reaction, it’s not pretty) so in this week’s #testkitchen* I did the unthinkable. […]

Farmers are a conservative lot. My former boss, employing a great talent for turns of phrase, would say” they are in a race to be first to be third.” What makes them so bearish? The weather. Let’s compare them to you. It’s sunny and creeping up on 80F today here in DC. […]

Every time I cook for an audience, someone leans over the table and whispers in my ear. “I hate Brussels sprouts,” they’ll say, or maybe it’s asparagus, fennel or squash. Then, conspiratorially, they share, “but I love what you just cooked.” These are my proudest moments. Cooking vegetables crisp-tender, lightly […]

A beetroot salad, in British television, seems to be shorthand for punishment or penance. However, faced with a spring season where the calendar had gotten far out ahead of the weather, that’s precisely what we made. Cold days had prevented the emergence of sweet asparagus or spring onions, so we […]

My birthday is not complete without a lemon cake. My Mom made them for me when I was young. Cliff Hunter baked his lemon pound cake for my birthday in 2005, and my husband Jason bakes them each year now, often with homemade lemon curd. Each of us has strict […]

Anything this orange, made with root vegetables, should be served on a crisp fall day – rich and hearty with a crusty bread and some good farm-fresh butter (which I evangelize about here). But this carrot-beet soup is light and fresh, tastes as good cold as it does served hot […]

My Dad doesn’t like beets. Or mushrooms. Every time I serve them to our family he jokes, “They are poisonous and we really shouldn’t eat them.” Now my beet-hating husband backs my Dad up in these arguments. Thank God for my Mom. Admittedly, this recipe has not made Dad a […]